From the research series
Four findings, in plain language.
FF Life is not built on guesses about what a good money habit looks like. These are the four findings that shaped it.
138 studies · about 20,000 participants
Across 138 randomised studies, monitoring progress toward a goal raised the chance of reaching it, and the effect was larger in the studies where that progress was physically recorded.
Across a personal-finance app, a randomised trial with credit union members, and a financial diary study, researchers found the same thing: after people set a budget their spending fell, and it fell further than it did for similar people who never set one, even though the budgets were usually too optimistic to hit.
A gift, a repair, a trip
People estimate their regular spending fairly well and underestimate the irregular kind, because each instance reads as exceptional. In aggregate it is not. Seen across a year, it is a category in its own right.
About 6 million families' accounts
Researchers found that families need roughly six weeks of take-home income set aside to weather an income dip and a spending spike happening at the same time, and 65 percent of families do not hold that. That is a smaller and more concrete target than the familiar three to six months.
None of this is advice about what to do with your own money. It is the evidence behind why FF Life asks you to log, budget loosely, name the irregular expenses, and keep a small cushion. The first three findings come from peer-reviewed journals; the fourth is a bank's own research institute working on its customers' accounts.
One calm place for a family's money - built on evidence, in early access now.
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